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Mini Pinball Kit 12: The End is Nigh -- Episode 334

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element14's The Ben Heck Show

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The pinball kit is almost complete. The team just needs to take some time to create some art, sound, code, scoring, and then test it.

 

 

Ben goes to work in Adobe Ilustrrator to design a semi generic playfield.  Originally, they were going for a semi generic playfield.  Ben shows the design of a slope for the ball to launch out of in Fusion 360. He also goes over some of his other design choices. They’re using tabs for the out walls, and “peanut butter cup shapes” for the main field. Ben’s also added some sling rubbers.  He figured out placement for the optosensors. Once he settles on a design, it’s time to laser cut the wood. Next, he goes to work on designing the solenoids. It looks like they will need to use the larger solenoids for the flippers.  He goes into Fusion to make modifications to the original drawing. Sheet metal can’t bend at perfect right angles – there’s always a curve. Fusion 360 fan figure this out for you.  It’s also good for something that needs flattening. The software warn if a design can’t be flattened out (parts intersect one another). After doing some more laser cutting, it’s time to make final assembly.  After all the arts in place and audio has been recorded, Ben shows you what the final design of the mini pinball kit looks like.  Ben, Karen, Felix, and Max share a moment of levity as they play the mini pinball kit they’ve designed.   Ben and Karen do an assessment of the manufacturability of the kit.

Pinball Art by: Jackson Reed

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  • Any ETA on the design plans being made available?

     

    I was very excited for this project and definitely wanted a kit to be made available in the end.

  • Nice project!

     

    Peanut butter cups Ben? Peanut butter cups?

    Yes: that does sound much sweeter than a splined hole for the splined cog shaft!

     

    Improvements

     

    1. Make the peanut butter cups half the diameter coupled with a smaller diameter shaft insert while maintaining the same size partition holder. This will give you more space in between the cups and permit more sensors if you want them.

     

    2. Use specially designed shafts to hold the lights. They will be inserted from underneath and can be held in place by Velcro, screws or magnets

     

    3. Add wax to the wooden walls to reduce friction. This will allow the ball to travel further.

  • Great finish.

    The final product was clean looking and a good basis for a series of optional kits based upon the same design.

    There are a lot of additional bells and whistle's, pun intended, that could be added to spice up the game, so I see a lot of growth potential for the platform.

     

    I would like to see an estimated cost to duplicate episode so that makers could assess the potential for duplicating the build.

     

    Well done everyone.

     

    DAB